Magic Duels

This post is from the now defunct website “A GameDev Plays…”, copied here for posterity

With the latest regular update its time to remind myself about Magic
Duels, the online
version of the tabletop game Magic the
Gathering. Does the venerable game translate
well? Maybe not.

The tabletop card game Magic has existed for over 20 years and I have
played it for a decent amount of that time. Recently I started playing
the online computer version Magic Duels, but am less than impressed when
comparing it to other computer card games such as Hearthstone or
Duelyst. It has all the standard parts of
Magic, well-designed and balanced card mechanics, collecting cards,
designing decks, duelling real opponents in what can be exciting and
close matches. However, instants slow down the game as the computer
pauses for possible interrupts (either too fast or too slow depending
your plans, or lack thereof) and mana problems are endemic so many games
are not competitive. Notably these parts of Magic have been skipped by
more recent computer card games to great effect. The game has a slight
pay-to-win issue, although mainly for new players trying to collect the
increasing backlog of cards. Older players can keep up through regular
play and quests to get everything without paying real money. Also there
are no draft games (my personal favourite) and opponents have a tendency
to quit early if the match goes against them. Overall, Magic Duels is an
acceptable translation of the tabletop game, but there are many better,
similar online CCG’s available now that have improved the basic formula - try them instead, unless you particularly want Magic (in which case
why read this review?).

Magic Duels is out free on the Steam
store for PC
only. It contains micro-transactions.